How to delete line with echo?

Question

I know that I could delete the last three chars with:

echo -ne '\b\b\b'

But how can I delete a full line? I mean I don't want to use:

echo -ne '\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b'

...etc... to delete a long line.

For those who'd like to continuously write on the same line: `echo -ne "\033[2K" ; printf "\r"`, now the line is good as new, as if it was never written to before. — Hello World, Oct 18 '14 at 14:33
I'm pretty sure you can just use `echo -ne "\e[2K\r"`. But ANSI escape sequences FTW, nonetheless. — Parthian Shot, Feb 04 '15 at 18:15
Also see [Why is printf better than echo?](http://unix.stackexchange.com/q/65803/135943) — Wildcard, Nov 08 '16 at 09:16

score 152 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 11 '11 at 20:50

152

You're looking for terminal escapes. In particular, to clear from the cursor position to the beginning of the line:

echo -e "\033[1K"

Or everything on the line, regardless of cursor position:

echo -e "\033[2K"

And you can do all sorts of other neat tricks with terminal escapes too.

answered Dec 11 '11 at 20:50

Kevin

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This assumes a VT100-compatible terminal or emulator (which is a pretty safe assumption these days). – Keith Thompson Dec 12 '11 at 01:46
3

If you want to erase something you just echoed, your previous echo must have the -n flag, or you'll be sent to a new line – djjeck Nov 20 '14 at 01:45
1

If you want to write something else, on the line you're erasing, add a -n flag on the echo above, or else you'll go to a new line right after deleting it. Also, append a \r to the string above, or your new content won't go to the beginning of that line. – djjeck Nov 20 '14 at 01:46
-1 | `-e` as `echo` argument is not POSIX compliant + I don't like the escape sequences. Either prefer `printf` or `tput`. – Vlastimil Burián Feb 03 '18 at 10:23
@Vlastimil why would you downvote this? OP didn't ask for an answer that you would like. Maybe he should have precised that `-e` parameter for `echo` is not POSIX compliant but still... – souki May 21 '18 at 10:01
`echo -ne "\033[2K\rFoobar"` – pmiguelpinto90 Nov 02 '21 at 15:20
Another useful one is `echo -e "\033[0K"` which clears from the cursor to the end of the line. – Alex Henrie Sep 30 '22 at 16:27

Lesmana · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-17T11:24:42.113

You can use \b or \r to move the cursor back and then overwrite the printed character with a new character.

Note that neither \b nor \r deletes the printed characters. It just moves the cursor back. \b moves the cursor back one character and \r moves the cursor to the beginning of the line.

Example:

echo -e 'fooooo\b\b\b\bbar

will print

fobaro

while

echo -e 'fooooo\rbar'

will print:

barooo

If you want the previous characters "deleted" then you can use the following workaround:

echo -e 'fooooo\r      \rbar'

or

echo -e 'fooooo\rbar   '

(note the spaces after bar)

output:

bar

note that there are now spaces after bar.

output with spaces highlighted

bar
   ^^^ spaces

for most use cases this will not matter. but if you, for example, modify background color you will notice the spaces.

Excerpt from man echo:

   If -e is in effect, the following sequences are recognized:

   \0NNN  the character whose ASCII code is NNN (octal)

   \\     backslash

   \a     alert (BEL)

   \b     backspace

   \c     produce no further output

   \f     form feed

   \n     new line

   \r     carriage return

   \t     horizontal tab

   \v     vertical tab

   NOTE: your shell may have its own version of echo, which usually super‐
   sedes the version described here.  Please refer to your  shell's  docu‐
   mentation for details about the options it supports.

Yes you are right. Note that `echo -e 'foooo\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\bbar'` also echoes `baroo`. — Lesmana, Dec 11 '11 at 11:46
You're not answering the OP's question. Kevin's answer is the correct one. — alexandernst, Dec 29 '19 at 13:16

score 37 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 03 '18 at 10:20

37

If you want to clear the line, then I suggest you use a combination of the carriage return people are mentioning and terminfo.

# terminfo clr_eol
ceol=$(tput el)
echo -ne "xyzzyxyzzy\r${ceol}foobar"

This will write xyzzyxyzzy, then return to the beginning of the line and send the "clear to end of line" sequence to the terminal, then write foobar. The -n makes echo not add a newline after the foobar.

edited Feb 03 '18 at 10:20

Vlastimil Burián

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answered Dec 11 '11 at 18:16

Arcege

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I like the sort of future-proofing part of this specific solution - using tput possibly means that it'll work on any kind of terminal. – Capt. Crunch Nov 06 '14 at 01:36
2

Better as `printf '%s\r%s%s' xyzzyxyzzy "$ceol" foobar` for portability and to avoid having the content of `$ceol` going through `\x` expansion. – Stéphane Chazelas Nov 08 '16 at 09:49
Best answer if only because it works with arbitrarily long lines. Thanks! – Raphael Jul 05 '18 at 13:06
work perfect. But if i resize terminal screen smaller than output line, it becomes messy. – K.Sopheak Apr 03 '19 at 08:36

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 17 '18 at 22:40

13

Here's an example using echo's no newline -n and carriage return \r options.

#!/bin/bash

CHECK_MARK="\033[0;32m\xE2\x9C\x94\033[0m"

echo -e "\n\e[4mDoing Things\e[0m"
echo -n "doing thing 1..."
sleep 1
echo -e "\\r${CHECK_MARK} thing 1 done"

answered Apr 17 '18 at 22:40

Derek Soike

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Check mark works even on RHEL6. Nice for purely aesthetical edits of my scripts – oneindelijk Aug 28 '19 at 11:40

score 12 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 11 '11 at 16:35

12

You explicitly ask for echo, but this request pins you down. Here's an approach that uses bash's builtin printf command with brace expansion:

printf 'fooooooooo' # 10 characters
printf '\r'; printf ' %0.s' {0..9} # 10 expansions of the space character

answered Dec 11 '11 at 16:35

kojiro

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perfect! exactly what I needed – Omar Mar 26 '13 at 17:09
2

printf 'Status: started';sleep 2s;printf '\r';printf 'Status: updated';sleep 2s;printf '\r'; – Omar Mar 26 '13 at 17:15

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 24 '19 at 14:55

2

Here is a countdown timer example I use:

i=10
while [ $i -gt 0 ]; 
do 
  printf "$i seconds remaining       " && printf '\r\033[1B'
  i=`expr $i - 1`
  sleep 1
  printf '\033[1A'
done

edited Feb 24 '19 at 14:55

Jeff Schaller

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answered Dec 15 '17 at 16:30

mikiemorales

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-1 | Maybe you wanted to intentionally make a one-liner, but that's actually only good for testing. I would re-write it properly with new lines. – Vlastimil Burián Feb 03 '18 at 08:05
Then, go ahead and do it and add a new answer. Or propose an edit of my answer. – mikiemorales Feb 04 '18 at 02:12
Perfect, this was what I was looking for for my script to print a running total – Sridhar Sarnobat Jul 08 '23 at 05:50
If you want to do it with multiple lines, use `tput cuu 2` – Sridhar Sarnobat Jul 08 '23 at 07:00

McPeppr · Answer 7 · 2016-11-08T09:40:30.023

1

Instead of echo -en "\r" you might also find the printf "\r" command as useful. This way you can format the string. e.g.:

for sec in {1..100}; do printf "\r %04d" ${sec}; sleep 0.1; done

I usually do that as well when operating with slow file parsing to display the filename currently in progress without creating a list

edited Nov 08 '16 at 09:40

answered Nov 08 '16 at 09:13

McPeppr

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-1 | Maybe you wanted to intentionally make a one-liner, but that's actually only good for testing. I would re-write it properly with new lines. – Vlastimil Burián Feb 03 '18 at 08:05

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 03 '18 at 13:45

As question is delete the full line

I have used below command with combination of echo and sed to delete line

After execution of command result will be empty.since while line will be replaced with none

command

echo  "\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b" | sed -r "s/.*//g"

How to delete line with echo?

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